So I have come late to the pumpkin party but boy am I an enthusiastic participant!

I have always loved pumpkin but in Australia it is eaten primarily as a savoury dish. I only discovered its use in baking from the many, MANY cooking blogs I follow. You may have noticed I have a recipe for pumpkin pie on my blog [sooo very delicious] but as canned pumpkin isn’t readily available here it means chopping/cooking/mashing pumpkin before you can even contemplate baking with it.

We recently returned from a US holiday, where we visited Disneyland [oh! So much happiness], San Fran [can I please move there?] and Hawaii. I dragged my poor family to every supermarket we passed [and many others that we had to make long-winded detours for] in order to stock up on baking provisions that aren’t available here in Australia. The legendary graham crackers. Pumpkin spice kisses. Hersey bars. And tins of pumpkin.

I couldn’t wait to get home and start baking with my imported loot and the first thing I made was Tartlette’s pumpkin semifreddo. Oh, what a revelation! Silky, creamy, and pumpkiny. Devine. All I did was change some of the spices to mixed spice & increase the cinnamon because I’m all about the cinnamon. Here’s her recipe: http://www.tarteletteblog.com/2009/11/recipe-pumkin-semifreddo-with-side-of.html

Spray a loaf tin with non-stick spray then line with plastic wrap, allowing for overhang.

Using whisk attachment in a stand mixer beat cream to soft peak stage then put in fridge.
Place honey, sugar, and water in heavy saucepan, stir, then bring to a boil over medium heat until it reaches 114C on a candy thermometer. Remove from heat.

In a clean bowl beat the egg yolks for a few seconds, then slowly but steadily pour in the hot honey mix. Don’t muck around – the honey mix will begin to solidify if you wait. Whip until the mix is airy and fluffy and incorporated.

Fold one third of chilled cream in, then beat the rest in along with pumpkin and spices.

Gently scrape into loaf tin, cover with plastic wrap and place in freezer overnight.

Pumpkin snickerdoodles

Gather:

225g butter, diced, at room temp

1 egg

2 ¾ cup plain flour

2 teaspoon baking powder

1 cup caster sugar ( I reduced the original recipe)

¾ cup pumpkin puree

½ teaspoon cinnamon

½ teaspoon mixed spice

½ teaspoon vanilla

sugar mix:

¼ cup caster sugar

2 tablespoon cinnamon

Stir together in small bowl

Let’s get to it:

Grease and line two baking sheets with baking paper.

Cream butter and sugar until fluffy then add egg, vanilla and pumpkin (do not over-mix).

Sift dry ingredients into a medium bowl and add to butter bowl, mixing until everything is combined.

Place in fridge for around an hour, then preheat oven to 180C.

Using your hands make golfball-sized biscuits, then dip into sugar mix.

Place on tray then gently squash down with a fork (I tried skipping this step and they came out too fluffy and big).

Bake 12-ish minutes; allow to cool on tray for a minute then place on wire rack to cool completely.

Yes, it is muffin mania at the Hungry Mum! What’s not to love about a portable sweet treat that requires no icing and no cutting?

Pumpkin has long been my favourite vegetable but it is only recently that I have been attracted to the idea of adding it to sweet dishes. In Australia it is served roasted or sometimes mashed but always savoury. Thanks to international baking blogs I am becoming somewhat obsessed with plonking pumpkin into my baking repertoire. Unlike the US we don’t have canned pumpkin here so it requires a fair bit of effort to chop/boil/mash the pumpkin but it is so worth it. Continue reading →

I adore pumpkin and love it in any incarnation. In Australia it is not really used in desserts but I know pumpkin pie is a true American tradition. Many moons ago I had pumpkin pie in Canada and loved it. I’d been wanting to make it for ages but most recipes seem to start with ‘one can of pumpkin puree’ – that’s not a thing in Australia.

The I stumbled across the magnificent book ‘Bake’ by pastry chef Alison Thompson and lo and behold – a pumpkin pie recipe. This book makes you want to stop everything and get into the kitchen to bake. Highly recommend it.

My iphone pictures do not do this delicious dessert justice. Note to self: use a better camera…

The pastry recipe is the easiest I’ve ever made [and I have a bit of a phobia about making pastry as it always seem so fragile and delicate but this is a hardy yet gorgeous pastry].

GATHER:

Sweet shortcrust pastry

225g sifted plain flour

60g sifted icing sugar

100g diced unsalted butter at room temperature

2 egg yolks

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment combine the flour, icing sugar and butter. Mix on low speed until no lumps of butter are visible. Add the egg yolks and mix on low speed until the mixture comes together to form a dough.

Wrap dough in cling wrap place in fridge for at least two hours

Filling

1kg pumpkin, peeled and cut into small pieces

125mL pouring cream

3 eggs

60g brown sugar

60g caster sugar

½ teaspoon ground ginger

pinch of ground cloves [I didn’t have any so used nutmeg instead]

LET’S GET TO IT

Make your dough. Leave in fridge for two hours.

Preheat oven to 170C.

Place pumpkin on baking tray, cover with foil and bake until pumpkin is very soft [Alison Thompson said around an hour, mine took about 1.5 hours. Maybe my pieces were too big].

While pumpkin is cooking take pastry out of fridge and allow it to come to room temperature.

Place sheet of baking paper on bench, unwrap pastry and using a rolling pin roll out to shape of non-stick tart tin with removable base [I used a rectangle tin approx 35cmx11cm]. Gently place in tart tin.

Place in fridge for half an hour.

Remove pumpkin carefully from oven [there may be water and steam] and place in bowl.

Increase oven temp to 180C.

Meanwhile place baking paper over pastry, fill with baking weights and bake until pastry is golden. Remove paper and weights and bake for a further 5 minutes.

Remove to bench; allow to cool for ten minutes.

Using a stick blender puree pumpkin until smooth and measure out 500ml of puree and pour into a bowl.

Whisk in cream, then the eggs, sugars and spices.

Pour into tart case, bake for 40 minutes until the filling is set.

Serve warm [or cold or eaten straight from the left over container at room temperature – it is amazing!]